Not On Pinterest

It was my turn to make the kindergarteners snack today. The mom before me brought in a rainbow made out of fruit and an animal out of crackers and cheese. The mom before that brought in a tray of snacks that resembled the Sistine Chapel. Okay….it was just a beautiful looking tray of food, but you get what I am saying. Today was my turn. Sorry kids, here are a few mangled looking bagel and cream cheese sandwiches with tomatoes that are ashamed of where they had ended up in life. I have no time for Pinterest.

In the cold, black hold of a sailing ship, a young woman lies dying, tormented that her death will mean nothing. No one will know. No one will care. Only the will to find a purpose for her life keeps breath in her exhausted body.

Far away, a soft Carolina breeze touches a mother’s face as she peers into the night sky, agonizing over the loss of her infant daughter nineteen years before. A haunting vision that will not leave her—it whispers of a living tie, still unbroken, to that baby long ago. Worlds apart and unaware of one another, the mother and daughter fight their lonely battles for survival.

Between them—a man rising to greatness with the new America will bring them together.

In 1769, on the shores of St. Christopher in the West Indies, Weston and Emily Emerson are devastated by the sight of their infant daughter’s blanket floating among the splintered remains of a lifeboat. The voyage that began with promise of a new beginning in America ends in tragedy when a violent storm separates them from their child. Believing their daughter has perished, the heartbroken Emersons continue their voyage to the Colonies, not knowing Brenna was rescued.

Nineteen years later, Brenna, unaware of her true identity, begins an odyssey that will take her far from her dismal existence on St. Christopher. A chance encounter with a mysterious stranger will forever change the course of her life. In the old Roman city of Bath, Nathan begins an unrelenting search for Brenna that sweeps across England, involving romance, murder, and intrigue.

The themes of this story are universal: a long journey; separation and return; uncertainty; searching and finding; the search for understanding God’s will amidst tragedy; and finally, the realization that people can be bound together forever.

Eighteen-year-old Tanzy Hightower knows horses, has grown up with them on Wildwood Farm. She also knows not to venture beyond the trees that line the pasture. Things happen out there that can’t be explained. Or undone. Worse, no one but she and the horses can see what lurks in the shadows of the woods.

When a moonlit ride turns into a terrifying chase, Tanzy is left to question everything, from the freak accident that killed her father to the very blood in her veins. Broken and confused, she turns to Lucas, a scarred, beautiful stranger, and to Vanessa, a charming new friend who has everything Tanzy doesn’t.

The twins, beckoned by an ominous streak of light across the sky, climb Harper’s Hill to encounter an apparition of their missing father.

The reverend stands on a muddy ridge, the barrel of a rifle in his neck, looking down on a Vietnamese village, scarred by war and regret.

The brash terrorist, Red Hat, desperately tries to walk away from life unscathed and unattached.

The stories haunt Margaret every waking moment, but they are anything but random. A fractured view Michael Cheevers’ red hat through a discreetly cracked door sends her off on adventure. A glimpse of the Johnson twins from apartment 2D transports her mind to the lonely hill on a Midwestern prairie in 1887. The regular letters from Reverend Davies bring her to the brink of exhaustion as she stares intensely into the heart of war, deep in the jungle of Vietnam.

Margaret is not insane, at least not in a clinical sense. She’s like a midnight raccoon, painfully aware of her surroundings, gleaning crumbs of information at every turn. Her eyes peer incessantly in the night, stealing glances of the neighbors through partially opened doors.

But the tales she weaves were not meant to merely hold empty court to the receptive dead air of her apartment. Her stories were meant to embolden the lives of the inhabitants of that drab apartment block because her story is also their story–and everything would be different if they could only hear the prophetic words of the rambling recluse.

The Recluse Storyteller weaves five stories into one as the loner, Margaret, not only searches for meaning from her reclusive life, but also gives meaning in the most unexpected ways to the troubled souls of her apartment complex. Part adventure, part tragedy, and part discovery, The Recluse Storyteller bridges genres, bringing hope, life, and redemption to the broken relationships of modern society.

While most people try to avoid death for as long as they can, Tryke Harper can’t get close enough. But even in his chosen profession as a paramedic, he struggles to witness those final moments of life.

Tryke’s obsession to find the human soul is matched by a much darker desire. He soon becomes entangled in the violence and injustice behind the emergency calls he must answer. When these two pursuits meet up on the streets of Dallas, they take him down a path he never could have imagined.

Ride along with Tryke as he explores the world of murder, suicide, and fatal accidents — and wrestles with his mother’s illness, his father’s mysterious journal, a new romance, a partner’s crumbling marriage, and his own childhood trauma.

Written by a paramedic, this fictional story takes you behind the scenes and inside the action.

there is no goat
Jennifer Dunham(11 Reviews)Genre: History | Biographies & Memoirs

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A comical, disturbing and engaging look into the Pashtun-Afghan culture, written by a female veteran of the U.S. Army.

Tasked with leading a team in support of U.S. Army Counterintelligence, Jennifer Dunham spent fourteen months in Eastern Afghanistan.Charged with conducting in-depth interviews of local men applying for jobs on a U.S. military base, she gained a unique insight into their culture, perceptions and ways of thinking.Through the course of interviewing over 500 Pashtun-Afghan men, Jennifer witnessed the heartbreak of war, the still-apparent control of the Taliban and effects of decades-long oppression on the local population.”There is no goat” provides revelations about the Pashtun-Afghan culture like no other book.The personal stories present the reader with an understanding of the day-to-day challenges and dangers many Afghans face.The book explores the Afghans’ views on crucial topics including politics, corruption, the role of Afghan women and Osama bin Laden.The first-hand accounts contained within the pages of “there is no goat” present exclusive visions into the minds of Afghan men.